best white Lepidoptera

Well do not think these are best in the world but they are a start. Parnassians ( parnassius ) are high altitude butterflies that can be found in the mountains of the USA and Europe. It is reported that some fly when there is still snow on the ground. They are very cold hardy. They often have red dots or patches in their black spotted and bared white wings. The Whites ( Pieridae ) are one of the most wide spread groups in the world found on almost every continent. Many species to be found with spots, patches and stripes of black on white wings. Some Pieridae also have a little color often on the wing undersides like yellow, orange, brown or red. Whites are often found in fields and disturbed places. But some like the woods like the Mustard White - Pieris napi - that is rarely seen in open places.

Now I know a premier butterfly to have would be a White Monarch from Hawaii. There is a lady there that breeds them. If you contact her take grate care what you say ( do not say anything about collecting insects ) because she is probably some one known as a "butterfly hugger". Butterfly huggers hate insect collectors. They refuse to talk to them or sell live stock or dead stock to them. I know this from experience with some one els that I talked to that had rare cream colored Gulf Fritillaries. Now here is the ladies web sight and her e mail that rears the rare White Monarchs:

www.whitemonarchs.com

dancetta@butterflyrealtor.com

Here's my favorite butterflies with white as the predominant color:

1) Parnassius charltonius, imperator or nomius ssp with lots of red

2) Elymnias agondas Female with blue spots on hind wings

3) Graphium stratiotes

4) Papilio eurymedon

5) Morpho thesus juturna

6) Salamis anacaardi

7) Hypolimnas usambara

8) Pieris cheiranthi Female

9) Eurytides orthosilaus

10) Graphium idaeoides

11) Colotis regina

12) Charaxes hadrianus

13) Morphotaenaris schoenbergi kenrike

HELLO

Morpho luna?

legal?

Not legal, just ignoring those non-legal suggestions. There's one from India too listed. Without paperwork, they're illegal is my understanding. Not being a buyer to avoid this in general, I'm going to err on the side of extreme caution.

I appreciate taking the time to answer my request regardless, I will just extract from the responses what I want.

I can just picture camping out for months on the US-Mexican border like a crazy man. I wonder if that really is ever fruitful or if we have border patrol for that too? No Mexican renegade butterflies taking advantage of our wonderful American flowers allowed

Probably you are right, but the American USFW might not have better things to do than to burst your collecting bubble with a huge fine and possible confiscation of your specimens should you end up with a Mexican butterfly and no permits, or Indian or Australian. And I'm not sure that even Mexican authorities wouldn't at least get a kick out of pinching a foreign collector, especially one from a wealthier country. I suspect bribes might be involved which only confounds the degree of illegality. I just avoid anything questionable completely if at all possible.

Just a theoretical question because I have little experience in these matters- what would you do if you did camp out on the US-Mexican border and actually did find some species that are never in the US except for a rare stray, like M. luna? How do you document that it is collected legally because it is US? Seems like making a tag is an easy way to lie and sell things you purchase illegally or something but on the other had there isn't like a 'certificate of authenticity' attached to the butterfly when you net it so how do you show you got yours in Texas, as uncommon as it might be, should it happen? This problem would stop me from collecting M. luna in Texas even if I did see one, which means no record in the long run for future study. I would be afraid of being accused of taking it or getting somehow under the table or whatever. This thought came up with the protection of Cassius and Ceraunus blues too in the other thread, since mine are the ssp. that are now protected. If you get something legally that is suddenly changed in status afterward, there isn't really a system that I know of to use to protect yourself beside the garbage disposal. But that hardly seems fair (to me the collector or to the butterflies that were killed for collection that are now 'bad' specimens to have) or reasonable in terms of future scientific use of my collection so I'm sure there must be something that can be done to show the veracity of your collection data. Who would get official documentation for something they weren't expecting to become protected? You know what I mean? Making problems for me when I try so hard to avoid them.